Complex-shaped piston oil galleries with piston crowns made by cast metal or powder metal processes

ABSTRACT

A steel piston with an oil gallery, and process for forming a steel piston oil gallery channel, which corresponds to the complex shape of the combustion bowl in the piston crown. The piston crown is made by a cast metal or powder metal forming process. The oil gallery channel is formed to the basic shape that corresponds to the shape of the walls of the combustion bowl. Machine-turning surfaces in the oil gallery channel can be machine-finished as desired. Surfaces in the oil gallery which cannot be machined with conventional turning operations, such as recesses and protrusions into the channel, are left in the original as-formed condition.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/766,055, filed Feb. 18, 2013, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates generally to pistons for internal combustion engines, particularly diesel engines, and more particularly to pistons having oil galleries.

BACKGROUND

It is known in internal combustion engine applications, particularly with respect to diesel engines, to provide pistons with bodies formed with a closed gallery for cooling oil. The oil circulates through the gallery and cools parts of the piston which are susceptible to damage from the heat of combustion. The upper rims around the combustion bowls are particularly susceptible to damage when overheated.

The cooling galleries are generally annular or ring-shaped with constant cross-sections and are provided inside the piston ring belt and adjacent the top wall and rim of the piston body. The gallery is bounded by an inner wall adjacent the combustion bowl. The oil galleries can be either open or closed. If closed, the gallery channel is closed at the bottom by a bottom wall. For closed galleries, inlets can be provided in the bottom wall for receiving cooling oil into the gallery, or the cooling oil could be supplied to the galleries by other means.

Traditionally, the combustion bowls of diesel engines have circular symmetric shapes and have smooth unbroken surfaces from the outer rims to the depressed center portions. Today, however, new bowls are being designed with non-traditional or complex shapes. It is understood that these non-traditional shapes are utilized in order to burn fuel more effectively and with less undesirable emissions. However, the complex bowl shapes makes the cooling of the bowls and rims with conventional piston galleries more difficult. Conventional machining with turning operations will not provide oil galleries with similar or corresponding complex shapes as the complex shaped combustion bowls.

If the differences in structure between the combustion bowls and the oil galleries create walls with significantly different thicknesses, or walls which are too thick to be adequately cooled by the oil being circulated in the oil galleries, then “hot spots” in the piston can occur where the material can overheat. Hot spot areas can create weak spots in the piston where the material could crack or fail. If a piston fails, this creates an engine failure causing major expense and perhaps a new engine for the vehicle.

It is an object of the present invention to provide piston crowns made by cast metal or powder metal processes with oil galleries, and a method of forming such oil galleries, which accommodates non-traditional complex-shaped combustion bowls and maintains thin and uniform wall thickness in order to avoid overheating concerns.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides oil galleries for cast metal and powder metal pistons with complex shaped combustion bowls, as well as methods for forming such oil galleries, which provide substantially uniform wall thickness between the combustion bowls and the oil galleries. The invention minimizes or eliminates hot spots and allows the oil in the galleries to maintain the rims and other areas of the pistons and combustion bowls within acceptable temperature limits.

The galleries are formed in the same or substantially similar complex shapes as the combustion bowls. The galleries are formed by cast metal processes or powder metal processes and then machined by conventional turning operations where possible to enlarge the galleries and to finish certain surfaces. Areas and surfaces in the galleries which cannot be finished by conventionally machine turning operations, such as recesses and bulges, are left in their initial condition. During the machine turning, an annular groove is formed extending the shape of the oil gallery in a direction toward the bowl rim.

The term “complex” as used herein refers to the shape of the combustion bowl in the piston crown which is not traditionally shaped, either in its outer perimeter, or inside the outer perimeter, or both. “Complex” shapes refers to all shapes of a combustion bowl other than traditional and which can have, for example, edges which include straight, curved, or arced sections, or which have bumps, protrusions, ribs, recesses and the like either in the bowl or, its outer perimeter, or both. In general, complex shapes are any shapes which are not machineable by conventional machine-turning operations.

The present invention is preferably utilized for pistons for diesel engines, although the invention can also be utilized for pistons for any internal combustion engine and for engines that use either liquid or gas fuel.

Once the crown of the piston if formed, the crown is attached to a second portion of the piston in order to complete the full piston. The second portion typically includes the remainder of the side walls and the pin bores. The crown and second portion are connected together in any known manner, but preferably by friction welding. A connection process of this type is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,472.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily appreciated when considered in connection with the following detailed description and appending drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a piston with a closed oil gallery.

FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C schematically illustrate three general types of complex combustion bowls.

FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view of a piston crown depicting a representative complex shape of a combustion bowl.

FIG. 4 is a cross-section of the piston crown as shown in FIG. 1 taken along line 4-4 and in direction of the arrows.

FIG. 5 is another cross-section of the piston crown similar to FIG. 4, following machining-turning of at least one surface of the oil gallery.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a system and method in accordance with the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A representative piston 100 in which the present invention can be utilized if the combustion bowl has a complex shape is shown in FIG. 1. The piston 100 includes a piston crown member 10 and a lower member 102 which includes sidewalls 104 and pin bosses 106. The piston crown 10 and lower member 102 are fixedly secured together, preferably by friction welding, to form the complete piston 100.

The piston 100 has an oil gallery in which oil is circulated in order to maintain the temperature of the piston, particularly the upper surface, combustion bowl and outer rim within acceptable temperature limits. The oil gallery includes an oil gallery channel 105 positioned in the crown member 10. The oil gallery can be either opened or closed as well known in the art. If closed, the bottom wall of the oil gallery is typically included as part of the lower member 102.

A piston crown member 10 with a representative complex combustion bowl 12 is depicted in FIG. 3. The shape of the bowl 12 is essentially a square shape with four sides 15, 16, 17 and 18. In the shape depicted, the sides are straight with rounded corners 21, 22, 23 and 24.

It is to be understood that the shape of the combustion bowl and the linearity of the sides 15-18 is merely one example of a complex combustion bowl. In accordance with the invention, the combustion bowl can have any perimeter or internal shape, with any number of sides or side portions. The sides and internal surfaces can also have any shape, such as being straight as shown or curved or arced, and can have sections or portions which are straight, curved or arced, or have bumps, protrusions, recesses, ribs and the like. In addition, the corners 21-24, or the intersections or joints between the side portions, can have any shape, and can protrude into the bowl or be recessed from it.

The shape of the piston bowl can be complex either in its outer periphery, as shown in FIG. 2A, be complex in the radially inner areas of the bowl, as shown in FIG. 2B, or be complex with respect to both the outer periphery and the inner areas as shown in FIG. 2C. FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C are representative of these three general types of complex shaped combustion bowls. The present invention provides an oil gallery and oil gallery channel that can accommodate combustion bowls with such complex shapes.

The piston crown and the entire piston are made of a cast metal or powder metal material. The shape of the piston crown 10 is formed by these processes. In the embodiment shown, the oil gallery channel is made by the cast metal or powder metal process, followed by a machining process.

A cross-section of the piston crown 10 after it is initially formed is shown in FIG. 4. The processes form an annular groove 30 that does not necessarily have a circumferential uniform width “W” or a uniform depth “D”. The width of the groove 30 is greater in the portions where the sides of the combustion bowl are furthest from the outside surface of the piston crown. These areas are designated by the numeral 40 in FIG. 3. Similarly, the areas where the groove 30 is the narrowest is at the corners or intersections between the side portions.

As a subsequent step in forming the oil galleries in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, the shape of the oil gallery is machined to the shape shown in FIG. 5. In one step in the machine processing, a machining tool represented by the member 50 is inserted into the oil gallery 30 (in the direction of arrow 52) and used to finish the outer surface of the oil gallery channel and to form an annular groove 60, entirely around the bowl. This machine-turning extends the oil gallery channel into the upper reaches of the piston crown (near the top ring groove and adjacent the top face or rim 80 of the piston). The groove 60, which is fully machined, extends above the initial channel 30.

“Machine-turning” or simply “turning” is a machining process in which a cutting tool, typically a non-rotary tool bit, moves linearly while the workpiece rotates, such as on a lathe. “Machine-turning” can refer to such a cutting or finishing operation on either the internal surfaces or the external surfaces of a workpiece. In machining some of the surfaces of an oil gallery channel thereon, the machine-turning finishes or forms internal surfaces.

The machine-turning processing can also be used to machine and finish some of the inner surfaces of the oil gallery channel 30, such as surface 31. Due to the complex shape in the oil gallery in order to follow the complex shape of the combustion bowl, a plurality of bumps or recesses can be formed on the inside gallery surface by the initial casting or powder forming processes. Due to the turning procedure used in the machining process, the recesses and areas between bumps are left unfinished (i.e. not machined) in this step. Inner gallery channel surfaces 32 and 33 in FIG. 5 are not finished and remain in their original condition.

In FIG. 3, the outer circumference of the finished annular groove 60 is indicated by hidden line 60′. In addition, an inner finished surface of the complex shaped oil gallery (such as surface 31) is indicated by the hidden line 31. The areas (e.g. recesses) left unfinished are indicated by the reference numeral 32 in FIG. 3 and numerals 32 and 33 in FIG. 5. An oil gallery channel having the shape 30 shown in FIG. 4 can be formed by cast metal or powdered metal processes.

In a typical forging operation, the oil gallery channel in the lower surface of the piston crown member 10 will be formed at the same time that another forging die is forming the complex shaped combustion bowl on the upper surface or upper side of the piston crown member.

The inventive process provides an annular oil gallery for a piston which has a similar or substantially the same perimeter inner shape as the outer perimeter shape of a complex-shaped combustion bowl. This minimizes the thicknesses of the wall areas 70 between the oil gallery and combustion bowl 12 and makes the wall thicknesses around the outside of the combustion bowl uniform. Due to practical limits of the forming and machining processes, the thicknesses of all of the walls will not be exactly the same around the circumference of the combustion bowl. The present invention, however, makes the wall thickness 70 as thin and uniform as practical around the entire oil gallery. This allows oil introduced in the oil gallery when the piston is finished to maintain the temperature of the bowl wall surfaces and rim 80 within appropriate limits and avoids harmful hot spots.

With the present invention, thick wall sections which can create hot spots are minimized or eliminated. Areas of a piston which overheat (also called “hot spots”) can create weak spots that could crack or fail. Failure of pistons in this manner could lead to expensive repairs, and possibly to the replacement of the engine.

Preferred cooling for a piston can be provided when the walls have a uniform thickness and are relatively thin. Pistons with thinner walls also have less weight which provides less strain on the engine. This results in better gas mileage and less harmful emissions.

FIG. 6 presents a flow chart 108 of the preferred method of forming an oil gallery channel in a piston crown that corresponds in shape to the shape of a complex combustion bowl in the piston crown. First, a piston crown member is made of a steel material 110. This can be done by any conventional manufacturing procedure.

Then, a complex shaped combustion bowl is formed in the top or upper surface of the piston crown member 112. This step is formed by a cast metal or powdered metal process.

At the same time, an oil gallery channel 30 is formed in the lower surface or lower side of the piston crown member with a shape that is similar to, or corresponds to, the shape of the combustion bowl. This is shown in box 114.

Finally, the oil gallery channel in the piston crown member is machine finished 116 to enlarge its size and bring it closer to the upper rim of the piston crown member and the combustion bowl. In this step, an annular groove 60 is formed by a cutting tool, and the other surfaces of the gallery channel which can be finished by a machine-turning operation (i.e. other than recesses and areas between bumps) can be finished as desired.

Although the invention has been described with respect to preferred embodiments, it is to be also understood that it is not to be so limited since changes and modifications can be made therein which are within the full scope of this invention as detailed by the following claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A piston comprising: a lower member, said lower member comprising sidewall portions and pin bores; an upper crown member joined to said lower member, said upper crown member being made of a metal material and having a complex shaped combustion bowl on an upper side thereof and an oil gallery channel on the lower side thereof, wherein said oil gallery channel includes a machine-formed radially outward circular wall surface and a radially inward wall surface, said radially inward wall surface having a same complex-shaped configuration as said combustion bowl, and said radially inward wall surface having first machine formed portions and second as-formed portions, wherein said machine-formed portions and said as-formed portions on said inward wall surface being positioned alternatively around a circumference of said inward wall surface.
 2. The piston as described in claim 1 wherein said as-formed portions comprise recesses in said inward wall surface.
 3. The piston as described in claim 1 wherein said machine-turned radially outward circular wall surface extends axially above said radially inward wall surface.
 4. The piston as described in claim 1 wherein said oil gallery channel includes an uppermost region that is entirely made up of machine-formed wall surface portions.
 5. The piston as described in claim 1 wherein said oil gallery channel is a portion of a closed oil gallery in the piston.
 6. The piston as described in claim 1 wherein said upper crown member being fabricated of steel by a cast metal or powder metal forming process.
 7. A piston comprising: a lower crown; an upper crown joined to said lower crown, said upper crown being made of a metal material and having a complex shaped combustion bowl on an upper side thereof and an oil gallery channel on a lower side thereof, wherein said oil gallery channel has a corresponding complex shape and includes a machine-formed circular radially outward wall surface and a radially inward wall surface, said radially inward wall surface having the same complex-shaped configuration as said combustion bowl, and said radially inward wall surface having first machine formed portions and second as-formed portions, wherein said radially inward wall surface comprises multiple radially inward recessed as-formed portions separated circumferentially from one another by intervening sections of machine-formed wall surface portions.
 8. The piston as described in claim 7 wherein at least one of said machine-formed wall surface portions extends axially above at least one of said as formed portions.
 9. The piston as described in claim 7 wherein said circular radially outward machine-formed wall surface extends axially above all of said radially inward wall surfaces.
 10. The piston as described in claim 7 wherein said upper crown member being fabricated of steel by a cast metal or powder metal forming process.
 11. A piston for an internal combustion engine, comprising: a steel piston crown member having a complex shaped combustion bowl; an oil gallery channel in the piston crown member having a shape corresponding to the complex shape of the combustion bowl, said shape of the oil gallery channel being formed by a cast metal or powder metal forming process; and a lower piston member attached to said piston crown member, said lower piston member having sidewall members and pin bores; said oil gallery channel having a circular radially outward machine-formed wall surface, and a radially inward wall surface, said radially inward wall surface having circumferentially alternating portions of machine-formed surfaces and as-formed surfaces.
 12. The piston as described in claim 11 wherein said steel piston crown member is fabricated by a cast metal or powder metal forming process.
 13. A method for forming an oil gallery channel in a steel piston crown member, said method comprising the steps of: providing a piston crown member made of a steel material and having an upper surface and a lower surface; forming a complex shaped combustion bowl in the upper surface of said piston crown member; forming a complex shaped oil gallery channel in the lower surface of said piston crown member, the oil gallery channel having a shape corresponding to the complex shape of the combustion bowl; said oil gallery channel having a radially inward wall surface and a radially outward wall surface; machine-forming the radially outward wall surface of said oil gallery channel; and machine-forming portions of the radially inward wall surface of said oil gallery channel and leaving portions of said radially inward wall surface as formed, wherein said machine-formed portions of said radially inward wall surface are alternatively positioned with said as-formed portions of said radially inward wall surface around a circumference of said inward wall surface.
 14. The piston as described in claim 13 wherein said radially outward machine-formed wall surface extends axially above said radially inward wall surface of oil gallery channel.
 15. The piston as described in claim 13 wherein said upper crown member being fabricated of steel by a cast metal or powder metal forming process. 